A common method for forming mineral fibers involves supplying molten mineral material to a centrifuge having a plurality of holes in its peripheral wall, and centrifuging the mineral material through the peripheral wall to form fibers. The fibers can be further attenuated with a blower or a combustion chamber burner, or can be merely deflected downwardly by a non-attenuating blower to form a generally cylindrical veil of fibers. It is desirable to distribute the fibers uniformly across the width of the collecting surface, and it is a common practice to utilize nozzles emitting air or steam blasts to periodically deflect the veil for distribution of the fibers into a wider pack. It is known that a pair of opposed nozzles can be positioned to periodically discharge gases to divide the veil into two or more principal fiber flows in order to uniformly distribute the fibers. It is also known that the nozzles for deflecting the veil can be elongated with the long side having a discharge opening for directing gases toward the veil.
One of the problems associated with the nozzles of such veil deflecting systems is that considerable amounts of energy are required for operation. The energy required can amount to a substantial portion of the total energy required for the entire fiber forming and fiber distributing system.
The present invention is directed toward a system for deflecting a veil of mineral fibers in which the energy consumed by the nozzles is substantially reduced. The present invention also substantially increases the deflecting force of the gases emitted from the nozzle by discharging the gases in a substantially non-turbulent state. The present invention also substantially reduces the turbulence in the induced air flowing past the nozzle, and such reduced turbulence lowers the noise levels.